Ikiru (Criterion Collection) (1958) On DVD

Actor:          Minosuke Yamada, Yunosuke Ito, Takashi Shimura, Kamatari Fujiwara
Director:     Akira Kurosawa
Genre:         Drama 
Year:            1958
Studio:         Criterion
Length:        143
Released:    January 6, 2004
Rating:         Unrated (Video)
Format:        DVD,NTSC
Misc:            Black & White
Language:   Japanese
Subtitles:     English

DESCRIPTION:

In this film, considered by some critics to be Akira Kurosawa's greatest and most compassionate achievement, Takashi Shimura (Seven Samurai) portrays Kenji Watanabe, an aging bureaucrat with stomach cancer forced to strip the veneer off his existence and find meaning in his final days.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• New transfer with restored image and sound and improved subtitle translation
• Audio commentary by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
• A Message from Akira Kurosawa (2000): a 90-minute documentary produced by Kurosawa Productions and featuring interviews with the director on the set of his later films
• A 41-minute documentary on Ikiru from the series, Akira Kurosawa: To Create is Beautiful